Skip to main content

Money Worries Keep Depressed Americans From Mental Health Care

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on July 22, 2024.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 22, 2024 -- Medical debt is significantly more common among people with a mood disorder, and these money woes can keep them from getting the help they need, a new study says.

Among people with depression or anxiety, those with medical debt were twice as likely to delay or forego mental health care as those who were debt-free, results show.

“The prevalence of medical debt in the U.S. is already quite high, and the prevalence was significantly higher among adults with depression and anxiety,” said lead researcher Kyle Moon, a doctoral student in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School’s Department of Mental Health in Baltimore.

“On the flip side, a relatively high number of adults with no medical debt also report delaying or forgoing mental health care, and medical debt appears to compound the problem,” Moon added in a Hopkins news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 27,600 participants in an annual federal survey on health.

About 27% of adults with depression and 26% with anxiety have medical debt going back 12 months, compared with about 9% of those who don't have either mood disorder, results show.

Consumer credit report data shows that medical debt is the biggest contributor to personal debt, researchers said in background notes. These sort of money troubles impact access to health care, by causing people to delay or forego treatment.

Researchers found that about 37% of people with medical debt delayed mental health care for their depression and another 38% didn’t seek care.

That’s more than double the 17% of depressed people with no medical debt who delayed care, as well as the 17% of the debt-free depressed who didn’t seek care.

There were similar numbers among people with anxiety. About 38% of those with medical debt delayed care compared with 17% without debt, and nearly 41% didn’t seek care compared with 17%.

Insurance coverage is no guarantee against medical debt, the study found.

More than 90% of the participants had insurance, but about 29% delayed care and another 29% did not seek out mental health care at all due to cost concerns.

The new study was published July 17 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Health systems could help this situation by making sure care is affordable, Moon said.

“Health systems have a critical role to play,” Moon said. “They could expand services for patients by improving the processes to determine patient eligibility for financial assistance.”

Sources

  • Johns Hopkins University, news release, July 18, 2024

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted July 2024

Read this next

FDA Warns of Unapproved Hair-Loss Product Linked to Side Effects

THURSDAY, April 24, 2025 — A quick spray of medication might seem like an easy way to get thicker hair, but some people say one sold online has left them battling sexual...

Virtual Singing Programs Boost Mood, Well-Being Of Isolated Seniors

THURSDAY, April 24, 2025 -- Singing can be a balm for the soul, but does it still soothe if a person is singing alone in a virtual crowd? Yes, says a pandemic-era study that...

Psilocybin Use Dramatically Increasing In U.S.

WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2025 — Recreational use of “magic mushroom” psilocybin skyrocketed in the U.S. during the early 2020s, as states began toying with...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.